50 Years Ago in Hockey – Upset Night in the NHL

There was a full slate of three games last night in the National Hockey League, and the results of all three can be considered upsets. The Rangers downed the Canadiens 3-1, Detroit doubled Toronto 4-2 and Boston won their first of the season, 5-2 over Chicago.

Henry leads Blueshirts over Habs

Camille (the Eel) Henry was the sparkplug for the New York Rangers in their win over Montreal at Madison Square Garden. The slightly built forward netted a pair of goals as the Broadway Blueshirts claimed the distinction of being the first team this season to hand Montreal a loss.

The Canadiens held the lead early in this one on a goal by Gilles Tremblay just three minutes into the first period. That didn’t last long as former Hab Phil Goyette evened the score a little more than four minutes later. Just 36 seconds after that Henry counted to put the Rangers ahead for good. He scored his second of the night late in the second period off a Rod Seiling set up to close out the scoring for the evening.

Phil Goyette – Counts against former mates

A crowd of over 15,000 fans were treated to the Rangers’ best performance in quite a while. They out-hit and out hustled the Habs at every turn and were by far the better team overall. New York outshot Montreal 33-30. If not for the solid work of Habs’ goalie Charlie Hodge, the result would have been even more lopsided.

While Henry was the scoring star, other Ranger standouts included defencemen Harry Howell and the rookie Seiling, and forwards Don Marshall (another former Hab) and Lou Angotti.

Ranger coach Red Sullivan thought his entire team played well:

“The spirit on this club was never higher. Everyone is working and the young players are really skating. Skating has always been the secret of Canadiens. If we keep up like tonight, we should do all right.”

Howell praised the forwards, who “are making the defence look good with strong backchecking. There’s no reason why we can’t keep it up.”

Another milestone for Gordie

In Detroit, Gordie Howe played his 1,328th game, combining league and playoff contests, and scored his 626th goal. That equals the scoring total in both regular and playoff matches posted by Maurice (Rocket) Richard in his career. The game itself seemed almost secondary to Howe’s feat, as the Red Wings waltzed to an easy 4-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Gordie Howe’s 626th goal equals Rocket Richard’s record

It was Toronto’s fourth game in five nights, and while this may have accounted for some of the Leafs’ indifferent play, Detroit completely outclassed the visitors, outshooting them 51-27. Only Johnny Bower’s heroic performance in goal kept the score at all respectable.

Bruins break into win column

In their tenth game of the season, the Boston Bruins finally registered their first victory, downing the Chicago Black Hawks by a convincing 5-2 count. It was the third consecutive loss for Chicago. The game took place at the Boston Garden before 12,075 very happy Bostonians.

The Bruins put on their finest skating and checking performance all season, and this seemed to disrupt and confuse the Hawks. After a wild first period in which the teams traded scoring chances at will, combining for 26 shots, the Bruins led 2-0 and then settled into a more conservative mode of play the rest of the way.

Johnny Bucyk and rookie Ron Schock scored the first period markers for Boston before the teams completely reversed form in a close checking, scoreless sandwich session.

Ab McDonald – former Hawk scored game-winner

The third frame saw the Bruins pour in two more to take a 4-0 lead. Former Hawk Ab McDonald had the third goal, while big Orland Kurtenbach fired the fourth. Bobby Hull’s seventh of the season for Chicago put a brief end to the Boston scoring streak before Bobby Leiter added the fifth Bruins tally. Johnny McKenzie closed out the scoring for Chicago with a meaningless marker with 10 seconds left in the game.

AHL Aces win streak stops at 10

In the American Hockey League, the big news was the 4-3 win by the Buffalo Bisons over the Quebec Aces. That stopped Quebec’s season long winning streak at 10 games, one shy of the league record. In other games, Springfield edged Cleveland 4-3, Hershey got by Providence 5-3 and it was Rochester over Baltimore 5-2.

Billy Dea scored the winning goal against Quebec in a see-saw battle in Buffalo. Hank Ciesla, Ian Cushenan and Jerry Melnyk also scored for the Bisons. Wanye Hicks, Red Berenson and Cleland Mortson had the Quebec scores. Ed Chadwick put in a solid performance in goal for Buffalo to hold off the Aces and preserve the Buffalo victory. Gilles Banville was between the pipes for Quebec and made 25 stops on the night.

Billy Dea netted the winner for Bisons

In Springfield, Dennis Olson scored his second goal of the game at 3:57 of overtime to lift the Indians over Cleveland. Roger Cote had both of Springfield’s other markers. Joe Szura had two for the Barons.

Roger DeJordy’s two goals led Hershey to their win over Providence.

In Rochester, the Amerks scored three goals in the space of seven minutes to down Baltimore. Wally Boyer, Dick Gamble, Gerry Ehman, Duane Rupp and Stan Smrke handled the Rochester scoring. Dick Meissner and Ted Taylor were the Baltimore goal-getters.

WHL Leafs drop third in three nights

Toronto’s WHL farm team, the Victoria Maple Leafs, dropped their third game in three nights last night in overtime against Portland. Pat Stapleton scored the winner in the extra session to give the Buckaroos a 5-4 win. Lou Jankowski had two for Victoria.

Pat Stapleton – overtime winner

In the other WHL games, Los Angeles slipped by the San Francisco Seals 3-1, and Seattle dumped Vancouver 5-3.

Brian Smith scored twice for Los Angeles, with Willie O’Ree getting the other against the Seals. Len (Comet) Haley scored for San Francisco.

At Seattle, Bill Dineen had two for the Totems. Singles came off the sticks of Gerry Leonard, Ray Kinasewich and Guyle Fielder. Billy McNeill, Buddy Boone and Jim Baird replied for the Canucks.

Swede stars in CPHL

This weekend in the Central Professional Hockey League saw a huge step being taken by Swedish star Ulf Sterner. On Saturday Sterner scored three points on a goal and two assists as the St. Paul Saints defeated the Memphis Wings 5-3. He followed that performance up with an even better one Sunday, scoring three times as the Saints drubbed the Omaha Knights 9-3.

Ulf Sterner, shown here at the Rangers training camp, had a big weekend in the CPHL

OHA Red Wings edge Jr. Habs 4-3

The Hamilton Red Wings took advantage of shaky Montreal goaltending by Rogatien Vachon to claim a 4-3 win over the Junior Canadiens. It was Hamilton’s first victory over the Junior Habs.

Monteal narrowly missed tying the game in the late stages when Rene Drolet fired a bullet which was partially blocked by Hamilton goaltender Peter Fritsch. The puck squirted loose behind Fritsch, but Crashley was Johnny-on-the-spot to swoop in and scoop up the loose disk and carry it to safety.

In Kitchener last night, before over 5,300 fans, the Toronto Marlboros edged the Rangers 6-5 in a wide open affair. In the OHA’s other weekend game, Peterborough downed Oshawa 4-3.

In Peterborough’s home-ice win over the Generals, four players shared in the scoring. John Vanderburg, Mickey Redmond, Danny Grant and Gord Godson tallied for the Petes. Chris Hayes, Danny O’Shea and Bill Bannerman replied for Oshawa.

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